The Los Angeles Times offer further proof that the movie industry has its elbow firmly planted on the pulse of the American public:
High-Tech Word of Mouth Maims Movies in a Flash (registration required)
Word of mouth — buzz — has long been an element in a film's success or failure. But rapid advances in technology, in the hands of an "American Idol" culture quick to express its vote-'em-off sentiments, has accelerated the pace of communication so much that Hollywood feels the reverberations at the box office almost immediately.
"In the old days, there used to be a term, 'buying your gross,' " said Rick Sands, chief operating officer at Miramax, referring to the millions of dollars studios throw at a movie to ensure a big opening weekend.
"You could buy your gross for the weekend and overcome bad word of mouth, because it took time to filter out into the general audience," he said. "Those days are over. Today, there is no fooling the public."
Yes, it's quite a tragedy that people are relying on the opinions of others to help better shape their viewing preferences. Only now, instead of looking to the bloviations of some professional or amateur windag, your friends can give you immediate feedback. Is anybody unhappy about this other than CEOaf Sands and his ilk?
"The Hulk" opened with $62 million but fell 69.7% by its second weekend. "2 Fast 2 Furious" started off with $50.4 million but dipped 63%. "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" turned in a disappointing $37 million and then saw its fortunes drop by 62.8%. And the much-maligned "Gigli" was in a class by itself, plunging faster than the scariest summer thrill ride — a disastrous $3.7-million opening weekend, followed by a record-breaking drop of 81.9%.
By Jove, I think I'm sensing one of those trend things here.
Some of this summer's biggest hits, such as Disney's "Finding Nemo" and "Pirates," showed the kind of staying power that comes only through positive word of mouth.
Paramount's lower-profile "The Italian Job" also did steady business from late May through the summer and has grossed $97.1 million.
And underdogs like the spelling bee documentary "Spellbound;" the non-narrative documentary on birds, "Winged Migration;" the British-Indian soccer comedy "Bend It Like Beckham;" and the lusty British-French drama "Swimming Pool" thrived on a smaller scale this summer because they got people talking.
So let me see if I have this straight...if studios put out garbage like "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and people tell their friends they don't like it, it doesn't make a lot of money? And smaller, better-made movies have a shot at making decent box office, meaning studios might actually try to produce better quality films? And the problem is where, exactly?
The most entertaining aspect of this article is the fact that all the executives who are bitching about the proliferation of text messaging and internet word-of-mouth are the ones behind summer crapfests like "Gigli." Meanwhile...
"Amidst the hype for all the blockbusters, we just kind of quietly put the movie out there and let the consumers do the marketing for us," said Nancy Utley, head of marketing for Fox Searchlight. "Consumers are banding together and protecting themselves from all the marketing out there.
Sounds like Nancy better start getting her résumé in order.
Studios obviously need to find some way to counter this. They already seed internet message boards with stooges who offer positive buzz for upcoming films, how long before they start hiring people to hang out in chat rooms and spam PM lists with fake praise? Maybe the MPAA will film a "Please don't text message" commercial to go along with the annoying "Please don't download movies" ad already playing in theaters.
Oren Aviv, marketing chief for Disney, gets the last word:
"Make a good movie and you win. Make a crappy movie and you lose."
Bold words from a man whose annual bonus will owe a lot to a clownfish and a slurring pirate. For now though, he's right.
And you thought that they were investigating cell-phone blocking technology in theaters to help the viewing experience? Bwahahahaha.
Incidentally, I love seeing actors who demand $20,000,000 for a picture telling me not to take money out of their pockets. Quite frankly, pirating movies isn't really high on my list - there aren't many movies out there worth spending the time on, much less committing a crime for.
It's astonishingly efficient when it works.......
| --Posted to Hellblazer on Aug 24, 2003 12:44 AM:. |
Is there some reason that they aren't considering the possibility that people are simply more inclined to watch a movie on opening night now than they were five years ago? I can see attributing an overnight drop to text messaging, but when you're looking at second weekend box office - it's hard to construct a theory that gets a non-text messager through the week without talking to someone who's seen the movie. Maybe they're banking on people forgetting how bad The Hulk was by the time Monday rolls around?